Image processing apparatus and method, and program

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a holding unit configured to hold, for each combination of a first angle indicating a face direction of a first face image which includes a human face and a second angle indicating a face direction of a second face image which includes a human face, a learning dictionary including information related to positions of feature points associating the first and second face images when a similarity degree between the first and second face images is estimated, a selection unit configured to select the learning dictionary held for each combination in accordance with the combination of the first and second angles, and a similarity degree estimation unit configured to estimate a facial similarity degree between the first and second face images on the basis of feature amounts extracted from the face images corresponding to the positions of the feature points included in the selected learning dictionary.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2008-025148 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Feb. 5, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a program. In particular, the invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a program with which an image identification performance can be easily improved.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Up to now, various technologies for identifying whether face images are of the same person or not have been proposed.[0006]The applicant of the present invention invented an image processing apparatus for improving a recognition accuracy in a case where a recognition processing is performed by using a correlation between two feature amounts, and has already filed t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0028]As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, the image identification performance can be easily improved.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, in general, it is only possible to use a model generated from previously obtained data when the apparatus is mounted to a household product, in particular.

For this reason, it is extremely difficult to update the model in accordance with a person having a face shape that is not matching with the model or change the model into a model specialized to the identification for a small number of limited people such as a family.

In addition, the face image synthesized by applying the face image to the standard face 3D model and rotating the model often decreases an identification performance because an appropriate synthesis is difficult to perform in a case where a difference between the model and the actual face shape is large.

The method of obtaining an approximate image by morphing the 3D face deformation model on the basis of the parameters has such a problem that calculations take a long period of time.

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